The Turkic Codex in Prokhor Kolomniatin Miscellany as a Source of the Crimean and Near Eastern Onomastics

Abstract

This article discusses the onomastics, mainly toponymics and hydronymics, of the Crimean Khanate and the Near East, mentioned in the Turkic-Russian dictionary that along with several other unique phrasebooks and dictionaries is included into the manuscript collection of miscellaneous texts (“Tsvetnik”) compiled in 1668 by the Russian monk Prokhor Kolomniatin (State Historical Museum, Muzeiskoe sobr., no. 2803). This text contains a large number of narrative passages on various subjects and significantly exceeds the other dictionaries of “Tsvetnik” in terms of volume and completeness. The compiler recorded the lexis by ear, without using any written sources. Therefore, the toponyms are recorded closely to the spoken language pronunciation, and their interpretations reflect the perception of the seventeenth-century Crimean Khanate cultural realities by both the compiler and his local “respondents”.